The Tall Blond Man with One Black Shoe

François Perrin is a scatterbrained violinist who turns up at Orly airport wearing one brown shoe and one black. That small absent-minded slip draws the attention of the French secret service, where the agency's deputy, Perrache, needs a decoy: his superior, Colonel Toulouse, wants to move against an ambitious subordinate, Colonel Milan, by sending him after a fictitious master spy. Perrin, who knows nothing of any of it, is chosen for the role. Watched, followed and fitted with listening devices in his own flat, he blunders through a world of rival agents without ever realising that his ordinary life is being read as the cover of a dangerous professional. The comedy comes from the gap between what the spies believe about him and what he actually is.

The film is a spoof of espionage thrillers directed by Yves Robert, who wrote the screenplay with Francis Veber, and it stands fifth in the chronological list of Robert's directing credits, after The War of the Buttons. Pierre Richard plays the hapless musician, with Bernard Blier and Jean Rochefort as the feuding colonels, Mireille Darc as Christine and Paul Le Person as Perrache; the credited cast runs to 25 names. Alain Poiré and Robert produced it for Gaumont and two partner companies, and it took about 4 million dollars worldwide.

Audience response has held up better than critical judgement: on IMDb it sits at 7.2 from around 10,000 votes and on TMDB at 7 from roughly 500, while the critics' rating is 5.8 from six reviews.